Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce
Captain Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce is the lead fictional character in the M*A*S*H novels, film, and television series. The character was played by Donald Sutherland in the film and Alan Alda on television. About Captain Pierce Born and raised in Crabapple Cove, Maine, Hawkeye is (according to the TV series) the son of Dr. Daniel Pierce. According to the novels, his father is “Big Benjy” Pierce, a lobster fisherman. He attended Androscoggin College, where he played football and intercepted a Hail Mary pass thrown by Dartmouth quarterback John McIntyre. After his medical residency in Boston, Hawkeye is drafted into the U. S. Army and called to serve at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) during the Korean War. Between long, intense sessions of treating critically wounded patients, he makes the best of his life in an isolated Army camp with heavy drinking, carousing, and pulling pranks on the people around him, especially the unpleasantly stiff and callous Major Frank Burns and Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan. Origin of the nickname “Hawkeye” The novel established that Pierce's nickname of "Hawkeye" was given to him by his father. It comes from the novel The Last of the Mohicans, which Pierce, in Hooker's book, claimed was "The only book my old man ever read." In an episode of the TV series in which Hawkeye believed himself to be in mortal danger due to heavy enemy shelling, he made out a will and left Colonel Sherman T. Potter (who Hawkeye stated was like a father) the edition of The Last of the Mohicans that his father had given him. "It was his favorite book," Hawkeye wrote in the will, implying that he had read more books. Changes in the character Although the Robert Altman film followed Hooker's book somewhat in structure, much of the dialogue was improvised and thus departed even from Ring Lardner, Jr.'s screenplay. The screenplay itself departed from the book in a number of details (e.g. Frank Burns became a major instead of a captain, and was identified with Major Hobson, the zealously religious officer that Pierce and bunk mate Trapper John McIntyre got removed from their tent and, subsequently, the camp), but on the whole, the main characters and mood were left intact. Perhaps the biggest change in Hawkeye's characterization from the book, to the big screen and finally to the small screen comes in his marital status. The Hawkeye of the book is married to Evelyn Pierce with children (according to the sequels) and faithful while in Korea (as far as the reader is concerned). He offers several doctors love advice, "Jeeter" Carroll for example, extolling the virtues of extramarital sex but never partaking himself. The film version of Hawkeye is still married, but gives himself more moral leeway, arguing that he is far from home, no one is ever going to know, and it will reduce stress for both involved. Finally, the film's Hawkeye was transformed into the womanizing and single Hawkeye of the TV series. In the pilot, however, Hawkeye told Lieutenant Dish that he was engaged and in a later first-season episode he broke up with several women, when he believed the war had ended, by telling him that he was married, although it was revealed at the end of the episode that he was lying. A later episode shows in fact Hawkeye had a one year common law relationship with a nurse after graduating from medical college which he revealed to BJ after the woman in question is assigned to MASH 4077 as a replacement nurse. Richard Hooker, who wrote the book on which the show (and the film version) was based, noted that Hawkeye was far more liberal in the TV show (in one of the sequel books, Hawkeye facetiously makes reference to "kicking the bejesus out of lefties just to stay in shape"). Hawkeye in the television series The television version of Hawkeye proved to be a somewhat different character: While his professional and social life was much the same, he also gradually evolved into a man of conscience trying to maintain some humanity and decency in the insane world into which he has been thrust. This was to a large extent due to actor Alan Alda's influence, as he infused the character with some of his political ideals and morals. Some fans regretted the change in Hawkeye, feeling that he eventually became too self-righteous and sanctimonious for his own good and the good of the show, and profess that Hawkeye worked better as a sardonic goofball. Developed for television by Larry Gelbart, the series departed in some respects radically from the film and book. The character of Duke Forrest was dropped altogether (primarily because the actor Tom Skerritt turned down the role), and Hawkeye became the center of the MASH unit's medical activity as well as the dramatic center of the series itself. In the book and the film, the Chief Surgeon had been "Trapper" John McIntyre; in the series, Pierce had that honor. In the book and the film, Hawkeye had played football in college (Androscoggin College, based on Hornberger's alma mater Bowdoin College); in the series, Alda's Hawkeye was hardly the football-champ type and even seemed proud of it and reveled in it, while his cohort Wayne Rogers' Trapper looked sturdy enough to have played football. He seemed to resemble Groucho Marx, with his quick wit and "madcap" antics, sometimes even affecting a Groucho-like schtick. As noted above, Hawkeye had been married in the book and the film. Near the beginning of the series, he claimed to be married, though this was a ploy on his part to get out of marrying a nurse he had been involved with. Presumably this alteration rendered his romantic dalliances (chiefly with nurses) more morally acceptable in the eyes of Gelbart and the other series officials. (In general, Gelbart tried to make the series less deliberately offensive and more "politically correct" than the film while nevertheless retaining some of its anarchic spirit.) Also, in early episodes, Hawkeye tells his father (Daniel) in a letter to say hello to his mother and sister, but in later episodes, he is an only child and his mother died when he was young. There is also a reference in the episode "Dear Dad", where he wrote a letter to his father, that their home is in Vermont and also in the Season 1 episode "Ceasefire", but all other references, including in the book and film, are to Hawkeye being from Maine. Most episodes refer to the senior Pierce as a physician, but in at least one episode, BJ addresses him over the telephone as "Mr. Pierce" (Pierce Service number was 19905607). In one episode Hawkeye nearly drowned when he was very young; he also suffers from claustrophobia, both of which were childhood traumatic experiences for him. A running gaga in the series is that Hawkeye is very disrespectful of the US military and everything it stands for; he goes around romancing every woman that comes near him (in contrast In Love and War (TV series episode) Hawkeye is actually a nice caring and respectful person towards a woman; he is also an alcohlic Alcoholics Unanimous (TV series episode) Bug Out (TV series episode) and Bottle Fatigue (TV series episode) -the only time Hawkeye follows US Army regulations is 1/17 when after a close friend of his dies on the operating table, Hawkeye reports an underage soldier to Major Houlihan and the MPs so the boy can be sent back to the United States. {Ironically the part was played by Ron Howard who was actually 18 years old!} (Sometimes You Hear the Bullet) another time Hawkeye refuses to fudge Colonel Potter's high blood pressure readings -stating that for once he agrees with army regulations. Hawkeye has a habit of smelling his food - First episode he's seen doing this is "Payday" 3.22 when he is serving as pay officer. Radar is trying to talk to him about neccessary paperwork and Hawkeye is paying more attention to the hotdog he's preparing - he smells the saurkraut before putting it on the hotdog. Five times in the series his character is nearly killed off-once when he had to operate on a wounded soldier who had a unexploded grenade in his body; once when a wounded POW has a live hand grenade in the operating room; once when he is in a jeep accident and suffers a serious head injury and once when he takes a cat from a shell shocked solider the patient nearly breaks Hawkeye's neck; another time a hysterical anti communist patient nearly stabs Hawkeye with a cane. He was also temporarily blinded trying to fix the nurses' stove and it exploded in his face. In one very early episode Hawkeye claims this is his second war-implying that he had been in World War II as well-although it is never shown if he was stateside or sent oversees. Although a running gag is that Hawkeye has a fellow prankster in either Trapper John or BJ this does not always turn out-once the emotional pressure of being separated from their loved ones got to be too much and both Trapper John and BJ tried to desert back to the USA-after hitting Hawkeye in the face! In fact after Hawkeye was once misreported as dead he tries to desert but only changes his mind at the last second because wounded are coming in. (The Late Captain Pierce) Also in a bit of turn about is fair play, Hawkeye was twice placed in command of the 4077th, the first of which he learned how truly difficult the burden of command was for Lt. Col. Blake, Col. Potter and even Maj. Burns to which Maj. Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan replied "if only Frank Burns could see you now." The third time Col. Potter left however command was given to Maj. Winchester. The series is correct in having him be a Captain. Once the degree of MD or DO is conferred on a member of the military they are given the rank of Captain in both the US Air Force and US Army. The rank of Captain is achieved after 7 years of active duty service or a field promotion for officers on the line side (fighting). The rank of Major is attained for members of the AMEDD after serving as a Captain for 6 years. After the war At the end of the television series, Hawkeye was the second-to-last to leave the dismantled camp with the announced goal of returning to his hometown of Crabapple Cove, Maine, to be a local doctor who has the time to get to know his patients instead of the endless flow of casualties he faced in his term of service. In Hooker's two sequels to M*A*S*H: A Novel About Three Army Doctors, M*A*S*H Goes to Maine and M*A*S*H Mania, Hawkeye returns to live in Crabapple Cove, near to the town of Spruce Harbor, Maine. Having left the Army, Hawkeye is established to be working for the Veterans Administration. In May 1954 he is laid off. At this point, Hawkeye doesn't have much money in the bank, is 31 years old, and has three children: Billy, Stephen and Karen. The day he's released, Trapper John comes to visit and sets Hawkeye's future in motion. Trapper John, a Lieutenant in the medical organization of Maxie Neville in New York City arranges for further thoracic training for Hawkeye, first in the East Orange VA Hospital in New Jersey, then at St Lombard's in Manhattan from July 1954. After two years Hawkeye breezes through the Thoracic Boards. At the end of his training in June 1956, two Spruce Harbor locals, Jocko Allcock (the man who was responsible for Hawkeye being fired by the VA) and "Wooden Leg" Willcox (the local fish magnate) come to visit Hawkeye to set him up in practice—by betting favorably on the outcome of his operations. The first operation with Trapper John's assistance (upon Pasquale Merlino) is a success, and thanks to his superior training Hawkeye becomes the local surgeon. As time goes by, Hawkeye is given more patients by the local general practitioner of note, "Doggy" Moore; goes into private practice with ex-Spitfire pilot Tony Holcombe and plots the eventual reuniting of the Swamp Gang. By 1959 Hawkeye has lured Duke Forrest, Trapper John and Spearchucker Jones into his net, and thanks to the proceeds of the "Allcock-Willcox" syndicate, a new "Finestkind Fishmarket and Clinic" is set up along with the new Spruce Harbor General Hospital. In the twenty-year period described in Hooker's two sequel novels, Hawkeye becomes notably more conservative politically (he supported Republican "Crazy Horse" Weinstein for governor of Maine and railed against people with "Recall Ford" bumper stickers), but remains as playful and humorous as ever. His golf game improves to an eight handicap depending on the time of year. He donates heavily to various causes, such as to needy children, to the re-education of a local clamdigger, and spends an inordinate amount of time caring for his patients. Category:M*A*S*H television series characters Category:Doctors Category:1970 M*A*S*H film characters Category:M*A*S*H TV Series Main Characters